Pangolins have big, thick scales all over.

They have tails.

A pangolin eats ants.

Ants stick to its long sticky tongue so it can suck them up.

Pangolins roll up into a ball to be safe.

What is a pangolin?

Pangolins are mammals covered in tough, overlapping scales. Hunting and habitat destruction have made these strange scaly mammals one of the most endangered groups in the world.

There are eight different kinds of pangolin, four in the warmer parts of Asia (the Chinese pangolin, Malayan pangolin, Indian pangolin, Philippine pangolin) and four in Africa (the Cape or ground pangolin, white-bellied or tree pangolin, giant ground pangolin, long-tailed pangolin) .

Habitat and distribution (where are they found?)

The Asian pangolins are found in Thailand, The Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as well as Malaysia.

The African pangolins: two kinds live in trees and two live on the ground. The Cape or ground pangolin is found in parts of east and south Africa. The giant pangolin is found in Uganda, Tanzania and western Kenya, in grasslands, rainforests and forests but not high in the mountains. These are the biggest pangolins and spend live mostly on the ground. The two smallest pangolins are also African, and live in trees in rainforests.

Pangolins are found in different habitats, such as tropical forests, cleared areas, grasslands, thick bush: wherever there are ants and termites.

Body and Diet

Most pangolins are less than one metre long, but the giant pangolin is about one and a half metres long. The smallest of all is the black-bellied or long-tailed pangolin, about 80cm long including tail.

A pangolin's back and tail are covered with large, overlapping, horny scales. The scales are made of keratin, which is what human hair and nails are made of. Its belly and chest are covered with soft hair. It has small eyes and hidden ears. Some kinds of pangolin have a tail that is longer than their body. Their tails are prehensile, meaning they can grab hold of branches.

Pangolins have a pointed snout with a small toothless mouth at the end. A long, thin, sticky tongue is used to catch termites and ants, and to drink. The ants and termites stick to the tongue and are taken into the mouth and swallowed. They are crushed by the walls of the stomach and by small pebbles that the pangolin has swallowed. At the end of its short legs, a pangolin has clawed toes that it uses for digging open ant and termite nests.

Behaviours

All pangolins are nocturnal, which means they are active at night. They rest during the day among the leaves in the fork of a tree or in a burrow in the ground, often in a termite mound. As they are shy animals, as well as nocturnal, not much is known about pangolins.

The Asian pangolins climb trees and hang from branches by their tail. They are very agile on the ground. The Chinese and Malayan pangolins spend the winter months in burrows. Both Cape and giant pangolins spend more time on the ground, although they can climb trees.

The pangolin can roll itself into a tight, armoured ball when hiding from predators. The name 'pangolin' is from the Malay word peng-goling, which means 'one who curls up'. When threatened, pangolins can extend their scales, which have very sharp edges. They lash their tails in defence, which can cause serious gashes in an attacker. If attacked, some kinds of pangolin can spray a bad-smelling liquid like a skunk does.

Sleeping pangolin.

Life Cycle

Female pangolins give birth to a single young each year. The young rides on its mother's tail and is protected from danger by being rolled up in her tail when she sleeps.

Conservation status and Threats

According to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, the numbers of all pangolin species are decreasing. The classifications are:

Chinese pangolin: Endangered

Malayan pangolin: Endangered.

Indian or thick-tailed pangolin: Near Threatened

Philippine or Palawan pangolin: Near Threatened

tree or African white-bellied pangolin: Near Threatened

giant ground pangolin: Near Threatened

Cape pangolin: Least Concern

long-tailed or black-bellied pangolin: Least Concern

The main danger to pangolins is from humans. They have been hunted by people for their skin for leather, their scales for traditional medicines and bodies for meat for hundreds of years. Forest clearing causing habitat loss is now an added threat.

If you use this in your own work, acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:

kidcyber

Welcome to www.kidcyber.com.au, a website established in 1999 for primary students and teachers.

We provide:

Easy to understand text for student research, including material for primary school students K-6Easy to navigate formatUnits of work and lesson plans for teachers on a variety of topics in key learning areaskidcyberQuests: student webquest assignments with links to information sites for research, project ideas, evaluation'Ask a kidcyber Researcher' feature where students can request specific information about a topicAdvice to parents about helping with school homework assignments and projects

Who are we?

The writers and publishers of kidcyber are Shirley Sydenham, a primary teacher, and Ron Thomas, a primary teacher-librarian. We are authors (together, individually and with others) of numerous books for teachers and kids, published in Australia and overseas. Recent books written together include Using the Library 1, 2 & 3; Thinking Through Themes (4 titles: Air, Fire, Water, Earth); and The Perfect School Project, published by and available at Teaching Solutions.

Our Audience

Students from K to 8, their teachers and parents.Homeschool students and their parents.Teacher Librarians

DISCLAIMER: In the interest of a safe, educational online experience. kidcyber provides links to other web pages, selected and examined for their appropriateness, to provide more information about a particular topic. kidcyber has no control over the information at these sites or links made from them to others sites, which might be considered inappropriate by some people. kidcyber cannot be held responsible for inappropriate sites Note: all kidcyber topics are regularly checked, updated and added to, so keep checking out this website.

The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows 10% of the number of words on this website to be reproduced and/or communicated by any Australian educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a Notice to Copyright Agency under part VB of the Act. For details of the CAL licence for educational institutions contact: Copyright Agency. Level 15, 233 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone: +612 9394 7600 Facsimile: +612 9394 7601 E-mail: info@copyright.com.au

Except as permitted under the Act (for example for the services of the Crown or in reliance on one of the fair dealing exceptions i.e. a fair dealing for the purposes of research or study) no part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the copyright owner at us@kidcyber.com.au